Evil Never Rests
by Dilectus
Summary: After the arrest of Giovanni, a small section of Team Rocket in western Kanto continues operation. With their boss once again in jail they're on their own to perform a dangerous experiment assigned to find ways of improving their pokémon to help conquer the world! At the same time, a young man waits to begin his journey, but he and his friend have no idea what they've gotten into.
1. Evil Never Rests

**Welcome to the first revision of "Evil Never Rests!"**

**This is my first story ever published to the public, and I cannot wait to hear what you all think.**

**For those of you who read my original: I hate to make you re-read it all, but there are some important changes you should take notice of.**

**This story isn't written in the anime-verse, game-verse, or manga-verse specifically, but there are some things taken from each. **

**I will write all of my pokémon fanfics in a way that I think would make the most sense if the pokémon was real.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon, it belongs to its creators in Japan.**

**Now, without further ado. Enjoy! ^_^**

* * *

"That Giovanni! He can't stay out of jail to save his life!" Dr. Namba yelled angrily at the television, which showed Giovanni being arrested again, "Why is it he keeps getting beaten by a bunch of kids anyway?"

"Overconfidence was always his weakness," Domino replied dismissively, her cold, blue eyes still scanning her tabloid magazine. "He'll learn eventually, let's just finish our job."

"Of course. How could I forget?" Dr. Namba said, grinning evilly beneath his red, bushy mustache. "Bring in our first test subject, there is much to do."

Just then, two Team Rocket grunts pushed a concealed cart into the small room. Dr. Namba ripped the cover off to reveal a frightened ralts, shivering in the corner of its cage. The small pokémon was completely white and resembled the shape of a human. The top half of its small head was covered by its green bangs, which were split down the center of its head by a plate-like red spike protruding out the top, and a smaller one on the back of its head. It had small arms, which didn't form into hands at the tips, and thick legs with trailing skin that gave the illusion of dragging the bottom of a nightgown behind it.

"Good, you fools managed to catch one." Dr. Namba stated flatly.

"Why did it HAVE to be a ralts anyway? We had to go all the way to Hoenn just to find one." One of the grunts asked, obviously tired.

"The humanoid form of this Pokémon in particular, and its evolutions, suggests great genetic similarities with humans. This will make our mission much less complicated," Namba responded, as he led the group down the hallway. "We have to know what we're dealing with if we're to alter its DNA."

As the others were fading down the hallway, Domino still sat there with her feet propped up on a table.

Finally, she sighed. _I can't believe the boss would come up with something this ridiculous _she thought, as she flicked her blonde curls out of her face and laid her magazine on the table. "Oh well," she added aloud, as she stood and exited the room, "time to watch another plan blow up."

* * *

After days of experimentation, Dr. Namba was at his wit's end. Already they had come close to completely destroying this poor ralts after attempting to study its DNA, tweak it a bit, then meet a dead-end and reset it. Each iteration caused the ralts to shriek even more intensely, the shock was unbearable.

The laboratory they were using was a large room with multiple computers and data monitors along the outside edge. The middle was occupied by a large machine that resembled a tower with a large glass dome fully consuming the center. Inside it was the ralts, hooked up to the machine in multiple places along its small body. Dr. Namba was sitting at his desk on a raised level of the room, which held a gigantic computer terminal.

"It seems this is more difficult than I thought it would be," Dr. Namba said, pinching the space between his eyes as the monstrous machine reconstructed what was previously altered.

"It would help if you knew what you were doing" Domino retorted, avoiding the doctor's furious gaze.

"Sir, if we do too much more it may destabilize and rip itself apart! We need to let it rest!" Chase, one of the scientists, warned.

"I have one more experiment to try, and then it can rest!" Namba responded.

"But sir-"

"Shut up and let me do my job!" Dr. Namba snapped, frantically typing on his terminal. The computer hummed violently, and the Ralts resumed its shrieking.

"Sir, slow down! You're going to overload the system!" Just then, a huge crash was heard nearby and his computer began sparking.

"What's happening!?" Namba yelled in fear.

"Energy spike, our systems are being fried as we speak!" yelled a researcher from the other side of the room, "We've already lost most of our memory units and a few processors!"

"You just couldn't leave it alone, could you, Einstein!?" Domino screamed over the alarms.

"Shut up! Somebody fix this!" Dr. Namba yelled.

"Easier said than done, sir," Chase replied. "Apparently, a group of onix decided to tunnel through level 4. Everything down there is rubble, including the backup storage units."

"Blast! Domino, take a squad to eliminate those onix before they cause any more damage!" Namba ordered fiercely.

He turned back to see why she hesitated. He was surprised to see her staring in horror straight ahead. He duplicated her expression when he saw what she stared at: inside the machine stood only the deformed body of what used to be the tortured ralts, barely alive.

"Sir, the response team is ready."

"D-Deploy them now, tell them to keep the power on as long as they can." Namba barely got the words out. "Pull up the backup files with the DNA sequences of this ralts, we need to repair it now!"

"Why try to save it? It's just one ralts?" Domino asked, coldly.

"Although we've had to undo most of what we've attempted, we still made plenty of headway towards our goal; we cannot let this Ralts die without making sure we have a copy of its successfully altered genetic structure." Dr. Namba responded, finally succeeding in plugging an external hard drive to his terminal, "We must rebuild it!"

"Sir, all the data collected during the trials was destroyed!" Chase said, frantically searching for a solution. "We're on our own at this point!"

"Damn it!" Dr. Namba slammed his fists on his desk, then he had an idea, "Maybe we can use human DNA to at least keep it alive…Domino, get in that machine!"

"What!? Why me!?" She yelled in disbelief.

"That ralts is a female, it would probably accept female DNA better than male, and you're the only one here!" He shouted back.

"Not a chance!" she shrieked, "I saw what that ralts went through!"

"Even just a drop of blood is more than enough, you'll be fine! Just do it! There's no time to waste!" He yelled, as he threw her into an analysis chamber placed along the wall. The machine hummed to life once more as the doctor entered multiple commands. When it stopped, the poor ralts had returned to its earlier form.

_It stopped…the pain finally…stopped…_ The ralts was still struggling to comprehend its situation, but was finally able to think clearly, _what happened to me?_ It lied motionless in the machine for a moment, gasping for air. It cringed as it slowly rose to its 'hands' and knees, trying to hold the contents of its stomach.

"Did it work? Has the ralts stabilized?" Dr. Namba asked, anxiously.

"Yes, it is stable," Chase replied. "But it's nearing its limit."

"Put it somewhere safe to recuperate, we can't risk a relapse," the doctor sighed, forcing his head into his palms.

Every inch of ralts was aching, as if someone was ripping it apart. Comprehending what the doctor said, it put that aside for now. _I have to find a way out of here!_ It thought desperately, forcing itself up. Noticing its surroundings, the ralts found many places where it could trigger an explosion. The battered ralts focused all its strength and forced an enormous wave of psychic energy throughout the room.

There were multiple small explosions from the pipes and computers that were already punctured or compromised in some way, and caused the glass around it to shatter into the scientists who were closing in to take it someplace "safe." Ralts fell to the floor. Finally able to move freely, it made a beeline for a wall with a gaping hole from the blast and ran as fast as it could manage through the enormous complex. Ralts was barely able to keep its pursuers at bay, tripping them using the last of its mental power.

After what seemed like hours, the ralts had finally found a way to escape. It made its way into what used to be a hallway, which was now a junction for enormous tunnels. The words "Level 4—backup st-" barely readable on the shattered wall. Ralts saw a faint light at the end of one of these tunnels and ran straight for it, stopping just quickly enough to avoid falling from the cliff it stared down. It looked around the mountainous terrain, bathed in beautiful shades of orange from the rising sun.

"I think it ran this way!" Ralts heard, followed by the footsteps of multiple grunts. It scanned the cliff frantically for any footing. It found a few jutting rocks and managed to climb down just enough to keep from being seen by its pursuers and hid under a small outcropping, panting heavily. After the grunts were no longer heard searching for it, the ralts slowly climbed down and ran. It just ran straight ahead, the hope of survival as its only fuel.

"Sir, we cannot find the ralts anywhere," One grunt reported back to Dr. Namba. "We think it may have escaped on level 4. We have a man monitoring the ASD. It is currently tracking a small pokémon heading east. We believe its destination is the Viridian Forest."

"Then go after it!" the impatient doctor roared, "Tear down that forest limb from limb if you have to, just find that ralts! If that thing figures out how to tell anyone about what happened, we're done for!"

* * *

As dawn approached, the quiet Pewter City came alive once again as the streets began to fill with determined businessmen and women, ready to start the day. Others were still half asleep, desperately clinging to their thermoses as they dragged themselves to work while the rest were children, either going to school or just going out to enjoy the morning.

While everyone else ran around to begin their routines, a young man named Jerald Fisher still lay sprawled across his bed, oblivious to his surroundings. He was around 6 feet tall, with brown hair and green eyes. Last week was his birthday and he was finally 16! He had just graduated school and was ready to depart on his journey through the Kanto region. The day after graduation, the entire class took a field trip to Pallet Town to get their first pokémon and a pokédex. Sadly, a few of the starters Professor Oak caught ran away, leaving Jerald and four other students without a pokémon. The professor assured all of them that he would catch more for them, but they were stuck at home until then.

"Jerald," his mother, Madison, said softly, "Time to wake up."

"Mmumph…five more hours mom, I don't want to go to school…" he said sleepily, trying to hold back a mischievous smile as he rolled to his side, turning his back on the slender brunette.

"Well, you said to get you up by ten o' clock," Madison said. "Come on. Dan should be on his way already, right?"

"Alright, alright," Jerald said as he threw off his blanket, but still did not stir.

"I made pancakes!" his mother announced happily.

Jerald suddenly rushed past her and down the stairs, practically jumping into his chair at the table. His mouth watered as he dumped his favorite blueberry syrup on the large stack and cut at it like an animal. Madison soon walked down the stairs and into the living room. She smiled to her son munching on his breakfast, then went to the kitchen to prepare his lunch for the day.

The house was a two-story, three bedroom home (they used the third bedroom for miscellaneous storage). The dining area and the living room were open to each other, sharing a light-brown carpet. The kitchen was located directly beside the dining area at one end of the house, while the living room occupied the rest of that floor.

Separating the kitchen from the rest of the house was an "L" shaped wall, which held extra cabinets and counter space. A staircase was located a few feet from the kitchen, leading straight up to Jerald's small bedroom. Connected to the staircase was a hallway that split into the remaining two bedrooms. There was a door to a small room under the staircase, full of holiday decorations. Across the hall from the staircase was the only bathroom in the house.

The television was loudly announcing a pokémon contest in Cerulean City to an empty living room, which consisted of a couch, a coffee table, and a reclining chair. The walls of both the living room and the dining room were dotted with potted plants.

Jerald was about half-way through his breakfast when there was a knock on the door and Jerald's childhood friend, Dan, walked in. Dan Strange was a young man about Jerald's height, clad in a yellow t-shirt, blue jeans, and a red ball cap, which hid his dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. He was able to get his starter, but he promised that he would not start his journey without his best friend.

"Howdy J, what's up?" Dan said, approaching his friend at the table.

"Hey, what's up?" Jerald said, through a mouthful of pancakes.

"Dude, chew THEN swallow," his friend said with a chuckle. "We don't want you getting sick out in the woods."

"The woods? You mean Viridian Forest?" Jerald replied sardonically, shoving more of his favorite breakfast into his mouth.

"Well, yeah, maybe you'll actually catch something this time." Dan laughed, leaning on the wall closest to his friend.

"You just worry about weakening them for me; your charmander should easily dominate in there." Jerald replied with a smile.

"Professor Oak said he would have a pokémon for you soon," Dan commented. "I don't see why you won't just wait for him."

"Because he said that last week," Jerald responded sourly. "Who knows how much longer I'll have to wait? I can just catch one on my own, if you'll still help me."

Dan sighed. "Sure, why not? But I still think you should wait."

"It's fine, I'll just get my 'starter' later," Jerald said, using air quotes. _I'd rather not keep you in Pewter much longer anyway._ Now finished with his pancakes, he put away his dish and started upstairs to change clothes, "Be right back."

A few minutes later, he came back down wearing black shorts, a grey t-shirt, and black gloves made without fingers. He was still cramming potions and pokéballs into his brown backpack.

"I still don't get your style, man." Dan said, gazing upon his strange friend.

"What? They're my lucky gloves! I have a good feeling about today!" Jerald said, tightening them proudly.

"Jerald, did you forget something?" His mother called from the kitchen.

Jerald went to her in the kitchen to see what she wanted and she handed him a plastic bowl full of food, mostly light snacks such as crackers, an apple or two, a small sandwich, and cookies with a Ziploc back of pokémon food.

"Thanks, mom," He said, as he gave her a hug and headed for the door.

"Be careful," She called after him, "be home for dinner!"

"What are you even looking for in your first pokémon? You passed up plenty of good ones yesterday." Dan asked as they walked down the streets of Pewter City.

"They went down to easily, didn't even try to put up much of a fight; I'd like one with power and determination." Jerald said, ready to take on the world.

"That's what a trainer teaches it, genius" Dan responded, playfully smacking his friend on the back as they entered the forest.

"I don't know, I guess I just want my first pokémon to be worthwhile," Jerald clarified.

* * *

**Please do not forget to review, your opinion is important to me as a writer. Thank you for your time!**


	2. Into the Forest

**Chapter 2**

**Alright, so this chapter is relatively unchanged; however, the next chapter has got some big changes. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon, it belongs to Satoshi Tajiri and the awesome Nintendo people.**

* * *

"Charmander, use ember!" Dan cried, as the fire pokémon spat a barrage of flames at a wild pinsir. The attack pierced the eerie darkness of the thick forest for only a moment before the victim had fallen to its back, unable to continue the battle.

"There really aren't that many strong pokémon out today," Jerald complained.

"Try not many out at all," Dan responded, annoyed at his friend's picky taste, "I haven't seen the forest this deserted since that wildfire a last year."

"Yeah, that was horrible," Jerald mused, as he surveyed their surroundings. "The northwestern part of the forest is still empty."

"Hey, I'm out of burn heals. Can I have one?" Dan asked as he examined the pinsir they had just knocked out.

"Sure," Jerald replied, as he began digging through his backpack.

They healed the pinsir's burns and kept on through the forest.

That pinsir was the last pokémon they had seen in hours. While they were searching, they heard a loud crash in the distance as a cloud of dust rose steadily. Jerald and Dan rushed over to see what happened.

At the site of the noise, they found an attractive girl around their age. Her blonde hair came down just past her shoulders. Most of her other features were drowned out by her blindingly orange blouse, but they did notice how thin she was; especially Dan. She groaned as she stood up and brushed off her black skirt.

"Are you ok?" Dan asked, as he rushed over to help her pick up her black bag. She thanked him as threw it over her shoulder.

"It was my pleasure," Dan flirted.

"I'm fine, but my Voltorb is done for…" She said somberly as she pointed to the charred sphere, about 20 yards away, "We were fighting a pikachu and he just exploded."

"Then where's the pikachu?" Jerald asked, looking around the area, "It should've been caught in the blast."

"It ran off just before voltorb exploded," she replied, checking her clothing for stains. She grimaced at the sight of a green smudge on her right hip.

"It looked like it was in pain, but we couldn't even hit the cute little thing," she continued, as she turned to recall her fainted pokémon, "Oh well, I guess I should head to the pokémon center. Seeya!"

"Wait!" Dan yelled, catching up to her, "Would you like an escort out? I know this place inside and out, we don't want you to get lost after all." The wide smile he wore was almost creepy to Jerald, but she seemed to ignore it.

"No thanks, I'll find my way out," she replied dismissively, leaving behind a dejected Dan Strange.

"Come on, Romeo, "Jerald said, grabbing the back of his friend's collar, "we still have to find me a pokémon."

"Come on, we have to go home soon anyway," Dan argued, struggling in Jerald's grip. "If we hurry, we can still catch up to her!"

"Leave the girl alone," Jerald replied, dragging his friend away, "you'll just get on her nerves. I still have one thing I want to check first anyway."

Dan reluctantly agreed and followed Jerald northwest, to the site of the forest fire that had occurred the year before; it actually didn't look as bad as one would have thought. Most of the grass and smaller plants had begun to grow back from the rich soil. Many trees still stood, however; charred to the core. Unable to produce any foliage, that section of the forest was the only large tear in the otherwise continuous forest. This area seemed deserted as well.

The fire started as an innocent pokémon battle between a new trainer from Pallet Town and a wild caterpie. The girl used a charmander to fight the small pokémon, but the inexperienced fire type completely missed its target. The fire spread quickly and soon engulfed the entire section of the forest. The only thing that could stop it was a feraligatr owned by a passing trainer from Johto. It took most of its strength just to control the fire, but the local Officer Jenny from Viridian City finished it with her team of Blastoise.

As they explored the charred remains of the Viridian Forest, something caught Jerald's eye.

"Hey, what's that over there?" He said, pointing.

* * *

_I have to keep going! I can't stop yet! _The exhausted ralts reminded itself, barely able to stay on its feet as it ran across the mountainous terrain. It hoped it wasn't still being followed as it came to an abrupt halt. Panting and barely able to stand, it was once again staring down a huge cliff. _I don't think I can keep doing this..._ As it looked down at its next challenge, it spotted a huge forest thick enough to cover an onix. _I bet I could hide in there._ It thought, now mustering up the strength to attempt its final descent. The small pokémon had made it about half-way down when it slipped. As it slid down the slope, it managed to throw its weight around so that it would not crash into the multiple outcroppings. Finally at the bottom, the ralts crawled into the vast forest.

It traveled as far as it could manage and came to an opening in the woods dotted with blackened trees. Barely even noticing them, it finally collapsed at the edge of the bushes. _Why are humans so evil? _Ralts thought helplessly, as the sun beat down on its head through the opening in the canopy._ I hope I never see another human again…_

"Hey, what's that over there?" It heard someone say.

_CRAP!_

Jerald moved forward to inspect the small white being. Ralts cried weakly and attempted to crawl away, unable to leave its prone position. It struggled more and more desperately the closer he got to it. Jerald was now close enough to pick it up. He reached out to the ralts, who cried out and curled up; it was ready to accept its fate. This made Jerald stop and put his hand to the ground as he leaned in for a closer look.

"What is it?" he asked, not recognizing its foreign physique.

Dan pulled out his pokédex and pointed it at the frightened pokémon, "Ralts, the emotion pokémon. Ralts has the ability to sense the emotions of people. If its trainer is in a cheerful mood, this Pokémon grows cheerful and joyous in the same way. It hides if it senses hostility."

"So it's called a 'ralts' huh?" Jerald said, still examining the shivering pokémon

"Yeah, but how did it get here?" Dan puzzled, "It says here that they are native to the Hoenn region, not Kanto."

"Maybe its trainer abandoned it," Jerald suggested gravely, "when I find the trainer who left his pokémon like this, I'll rip them to shreds! Come on, we have to hurry to the pokémon center!"

Jerald slowly reached out to pick up the injured pokémon. The ralts would have struggled if it wasn't so exhausted, but its mind was put at ease when it noticed the genuine concern Jerald felt for it and it finally surrendered the fight to stay conscious.

As Jerald carefully lifted the ralts into his arms, a steady whirring sound approached.

"What in the world? Is that a helicopter?" Dan asked, looking to the sky while Jerald was already running in the direction of Pewter City, not even acknowledging the sound.

Jerald didn't even bother trying to stick to a path through the forest. He made a beeline to Pewter City as he dodged trees and bushes, carefully cradling the injured pokémon in his arms. The shade of the thick foliage greatly obscured every obstacle as he sprinted through the forest, making it impossible to avoid the occasional head-butt into a tree or stumbling over roots. Jerald was thankful he could at least keep the ralts from making direct contact, but feared he may have squished it into his chest a few times whenever he rammed a tree. Finally, the forest thinned out and the sun shone through, now making its way towards the western horizon. Jerald quickly ran into a chain link fence at the outskirts of the city. In the distance, he spotted the towering building that he searched for, only distinguishable by the three giant pokéballs mounted on the top.

Realizing he needed both hands to climb, he had an idea. He pulled a clean handkerchief from his backpack and carefully wrapped the ralts up like a cocoon. He tied the little cocoon to the top of the fence and began climbing. Once he reached the top, he anchored himself by jamming his foot into the fence below and recovered his pokémon. He then jumped down and continued running, pushing his way through the rush hour crowd that now flooded Pewter City.

Jerald ran only a few minutes before arriving at the pokémon center. As he rushed through the double doors, he accidentally crashed into a trainer who was on his way out.

"Watch where you're going, genius," the boy said coldly, replacing his green backpack with a scowl. He walked down the street towards Mt. Moon as he readjusted his red jacket and checked the pockets of his black cargo pants.

"No, don't worry about me," Jerald mumbled to himself, "I'm ok, jerk."

Recalling his current mission, he quickly forced himself up with the unconscious ralts still cradled in his arms. He made his way through the crowd that had gathered in the large waiting room to Nurse Joy, who seemed surprised to see what pokémon he had brought to her.

"Please heal this ralts; it's in really bad shape." He said, almost forcing it into her hands.

Nurse Joy did not waste any time, after a quick nod she quickly carried the pokémon into the back.

Out of breath from running so far, Jerald took a seat and sighed with relief.

Finally a little more at ease, he could let his mind wander. _What's a "Ralts" doing here? Didn't Dan say it was native to Hoenn? And what happened to it that put it in such bad shape…I'm glad we were out there today, or it might not have survived._ He looked around at the crowd that populated the large waiting room. Tuning in to his surroundings, he heard many trainers talking about their pokémon acting strangely. Some hit the ground holding their ears while others just howled in pain with no clear cause. All of these trainers had brought their pokémon to Nurse Joy, but she could find nothing wrong with them. _Maybe that's why there weren't many pokémon out today, but why wasn't charmander affected? _He sat there for some time, alone with his thoughts.

* * *

On the top floor of the tallest apartment building in Pewter City, the city seems almost leveled off. Many of the buildings were of a similar height, with only a few towering above the others, but she had gotten used to the view. Barely even noticing the window directly in front of her bed, a familiar girl clad in orange and black was reading her favorite old fashion magazines. Most of them were issues from at least three years earlier. The sun shone through her window and into her cluttered room as it continued its advances toward the horizon, just beginning to distort the sky's soft hue.

"Man, I am so bored!" she sighed, as she flung the magazine onto a pile with at least ten others in the floor. She lay back on her bed and stared blankly at the ceiling, pondering any other activities she could engage herself in. Her bedroom was fairly small, with a dresser on the far wall and a small, white vanity desk not far from the door, which remained only partly open directly behind where her head lay.

Suddenly, her phone started ringing. Digging through her bag just beside her, she hurried towards the familiar ringtone. The caller ID confirmed that it was her father.

"Hi daddy!" she answered cheerfully, still lying on her bed.

"Hi Lisa, how are you?" the soft voice of an middle-aged man came through the speakers.

"I am soooo bored, when are you coming home?" she replied.

"I am on my way into town in the helicopter," he replied, but she knew a "but" was on its way, "but I have a short meeting across town first, it shouldn't take too long."

_Bingo!_ "You always say that..." she replied somberly. "Just be home as fast as you can, we never get to spend any time together!"

"I promise I'll be home soon, honey," he said quickly. "By the way, did you clean your room like I asked you to?"

"uhhh..." she sat up and glanced around her filthy room, which was covered in magazines, clothing, and other miscellaneous items.

"Should I take that as a no?" he teased.

"um, I'm still working on it," she lied.

"Uh-huh," he said sarcastically. "Well, I have to go, we're landing. Bye, sweetheart, I love you!"

"I love you too, daddy," she responded, right before she heard a click.

* * *

**Don't forget to review!**


	3. Homecoming

**It has been brought to my attention that you all who read the original version won't want to wait 3 weeks for 3 more chapters that you've already read, but I don't know why I didn't think of it before. So, I'll post the rest of the revisions as I complete them and I apologize. I do, however, have school so I don't know when that will be.**

**Now, time for some controversy. In this chapter, there is a point where Jerald uses his pokédex to see his pokémon's moves. We all know that the 4 move limit is just to put a challenge in the pokémon games, right? Well it doesn't make much sense to me being in the anime too because pokémon are obviously smarter than that, so in this story pokémon will remember as many moves as they practise/use. **

**From my POV, it's just like remembering button combos on a video game, but _this topic is up for debate._ Tell me your opinion in the reviews after you finish reading.**

* * *

Dan walked in and scanned the room for his friend. It was difficult to find Jerald in the surprising crowd that congregated inside the waiting room of the pokémon center. There were many trainers sitting along the outside edge, worried sick, while the rest were either pacing nervously or meeting with their friends to discuss the events of the day. Finally, Dan found his comrade sitting in the corner in the back of the room. Dan pushed through the crowd and sat beside Jerald, who appeared to be deep in thought.

"Has Nurse Joy come back yet?" Dan asked, shaking his friend from his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, no not yet." he replied.

"Oh, ok," Dan was not sure what he could say, so he tried to change the subject, "So, did you hear that helicopter back there?"

"No, what helicopter?" Jerald asked, completely oblivious.

"There was a helicopter flying by," he replied. "I wanted to wait and see if I could see it, but I came to see how that ralts was."

"Nope, didn't hear it," Jerald replied plainly, without even moving.

"Uhh...Quite a crowd today," Dan commented moments later. "Any idea what's going on?"

"I only heard a few of them talking. From what I can gather, everybody's pokémon heard something that hurt their ears. Like, some noise that humans can't hear."

"Huh, Charmander seemed ok," Dan responded.

"He might have been in his pokéball when it happened," Jerald said. "My point is, maybe that's why there weren't many pokémon in the forest today. That noise, or whatever it was, might have scared them all into hiding. That girl said that the pikachu she was fighting ran off in pain, right? Maybe it heard the sound too."

His friend nodded thoughtfully. _It was definitely a possibility, but what could have happened to cause the sound?_ But Dan's thoughts quickly strayed from the matter at hand. _That girl was pretty cute, I wonder if I could get her number later. I bet she got lost in the forest somewhere, she probably wishes she had me there to guide her... I'm hungry, I wonder what's for dinner. Come to think of it, what time is it?_

"Oops, look at the time," Dan said, as his red pokétch striked six o' clock, "I better get home for dinner."

"Would you mind stopping at my house to tell my mom I'll be late?" Jerald asked.

"Sure, no problem," Dan said, getting up. "Keep me updated on that Ralts." Jerald nodded.

* * *

Almost an hour and a half after Dan had gone; Jerald was still seated in the waiting room of the pokémon center. It was completely empty now and he was getting a bit impatient. As he stood and wandered aimlessly around the room, a young man with black hair and dark eyes walked in. He wore blue jeans and a red T-shirt.

"Hey, Bruce. What's up?" Jerald greeted his classmate.

"Hey Jerald, what are you doing here?" the boy asked.

"Found an injured pokémon in the forest. And you?"

"Professor Oak called, he has our pokémon!" Bruce said eagerly, walking towards the row of videophones beside the counter. "Come on, I'm about to call him."

Bruce took a seat in front of the first computer and dialed for Professor Oak's lab, Jerald stood behind him. After a moment, the phone was answered by an elderly gentleman. He wore a green polo shirt under a light brown jacket, which matched the natural color of his graying hair.

"Hey professor," Bruce greeted, "look who I found."

"Hello, Bruce," the professor said. "Ah, Jerald. What a pleasant surprise! I'll be with you in a moment."

Jerald nodded and patiently took a seat beside Bruce.

"Now, since we did not have enough pokémon for everyone, I had to call in a favor from Professor Elm in the Johto region," the professor stated. "There was a slight setback, but he was able to send me some starters for you all. For Bruce, I have a chikorita. Its kind and cheerful nature makes it a perfect match for you, young man."

Just then, a pokéball materialized from the transfer system attached to the terminal.

"Thank you, Professor!" Bruce said as he happily retrieved his ball. "I'll take good care of it!"

"I expect you will," the professor smiled, then turned to Jerald. "And Jerald, I have a totodile for you. I believe its energy and passion is just what a trainer like you would work well with. I won't pretend to know you all well enough to match you with the perfect pokémon, but I'm sure you are capable of raising these pokémon well."

"Thank you, Professor," Jerald said, reaching for his ball in the transfer system, "we will!"

"Excuse me, Jerald?" a soft voice spoke behind them. "I have your pokémon over here when you're ready."

"Jerald, did you already catch a pokémon?" Professor Oak asked.

"Thanks, Nurse Joy. I'll be there in a minute," Jerald said, then turned to Oak. "No, I found it in the forest. It looked terrible so I brought it here."

"That's very kind of you," Oak said. "I better go and call your other two classmates about their pokémon, but don't be a stranger. Good luck boys, goodbye."

"Bye, Professor. Seeya, Bruce," Jerald said as the screen went dark. He turned to see Nurse Joy waiting beside the counter with a cart that held a sleeping Ralts. Her usually cheerful demeaner had been replaced with concern.

"How is Ralts?" Jerald whispered as he approached silently.

"Your Ralts is going to be fine," She said quietly, but sternly. "I don't know what you did to the poor thing, but I have half a mind to call Officer Jenny and report abuse."

"Trust me Nurse Joy, I had nothing to do with it," Jerald explained, seriously. "I found it crawling around the northwestern part of the woods, scared out of its mind."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," She said softly, surprise written all over her face. "So are you going to take it with you?"

"Yes, I believe I will. Thank you Nurse Joy," Jerald replied, happily. He slowly and carefully picked it up and carried it home as the sun was setting.

* * *

Jerald quietly opened the door to his house around 7:30, trying not to disturb his pokémon.

"You're late," His mother said, flatly.

"Shhhhh!" Jerald silenced her, turning around to show her what he carried.

"Sorry," she said, much more quietly, "you're late."

"I know I'm sorry," Jerald whispered, "I was in the Pokémon Center waiting for this little guy."

"So why isn't it in its pokéball?" She whispered back.

"Because I haven't put in one yet,"

"Why not?"

"How would you like passing out in the forest and waking up in a ball?"

"True. Well, what happened to it?"

"I don't know, but you should've seen it when I found it," He replied. "It was so pitiful."

"Was it that bad?" His mother asked with concern. Jerald nodded.

"Hang on, I'll make it a little bed," His mother said, walking past the stairs and into the third bedroom.

Jerald admired his new pokémon while he waited. _It's so cute!_ He thought cheerfully. His mother came back a few minutes later with a shoebox filled with cotton and a small pillow that fit perfectly in one end. Jerald carefully placed the pokémon inside and used a clean handkerchief as a blanket.

"I'll go put it in my room," He said quietly, making his way upstairs.

"So what's for supper?" Jerald asked a few minutes later, as he walked down the stairs.

"I made a turkey pot pie. I put the leftovers are in the fridge," She said.

"Okay. Do you have any pokémon food?" Jerald asked as he retrieved his refrigerated meal.

"Yes, we have plenty in the pantry," Madison said. "Why?"

"I talked to Professor Oak while I was in the pokémon center, he sent me a totodile!" Jerald replied, proudly pulling out his pokéball to show his mother.

"That's great!" Madison replied as Jerald released the small alligator into the kitchen. "It's so cute!"

The bipedal pokémon came about to Jerald's knee. Its scales were a light blue tint with a cream colored area on its stomach and chest. Long red spikes ran from the back of its head to its short tail. It's most notable feature was its long, sharp teeth, which were on full display as it jumped and danced happily in place and repeated bits of its name.

"Hi there," Jerald said, causing his pokémon to stop and watch him. "My name's Jerald, I'm your new trainer!"

The totodile then started dancing happily again. Just then, the timer on the microwave beeped loudly. Totodile jumped and fired a steady stream of water at the machine, barely missing Jerald's head. Madison looked in horror at her dripping microwave while Jerald was laughing loudly.

"Don't attack appliances, Totodile, they won't hurt you," Jerald laughed. He walked to a drawer beside the oven and pulled out two towels and threw one of them over the reptile's head. "Here, help me wipe this up." Totodile pulled the cloth off of its face and began to wipe water from the floor.

"Hey mom, you mind scanning Totodile with my pokédex?" Jerald said, removing the device from his backpack and handing it to his mother. "Hit that button."

"Totodile, the Big Jaw Pokémon. Totodile has a habit of using its highly developed jaws to chomp on anything in sight, so trainers beware."

Jerald looked down at the sound of a grinding noise to find the small alligator chewing on his towel. After a quick look of disapproval from Jerald, the pokémon continued scrubbing the floor with an innocent look on its face.

"What else does it say?" Jerald asked, turning to the wet microwave.

"Uh, it's a male, it's a little over two feet tall, weighs about thirty pounds...Oh, here's what attacks it's learned so far: Scratch, Leer, Water Gun, Rage, and Bite. Honey, why is Bite a dark move? Isn't it just a bite?"

"Anybody can bite, but only certain pokémon can use it as a dark type move, specifically those with big teeth." Jerald responded, now wiping the counter. "I don't know how it works but they can infuse the dark power in their teeth."

Jerald collected the towel from Totodile and placed both of them in the sink. He restarted the microwave for a few more seconds to make sure his food was still warm and warned Totodile so that the machine wouldn't end up drenched again.

"So where did you find that cute little pokémon upstairs?" Madison asked as Jerald opened the pantry next to the refrigerator.

"In the northwestern part of the forest, where that fire was last year." He responded, digging through a large container of pokémon food. "It was really scared, but it could only manage to crawl away when it saw me coming. The poor thing wasn't that hard to catch up to."

"Aw, that's so sad," Madison replied earnestly. "Did you see who left it there?"

"No, but when I find them, they're dead," He replied hatefully, pulling out a bag of food made for water pokémon.

His mother smiled. _You always get so worked up_ she thought to herself, recalling how much she was called to his school because of a fight. His opponent was always a bully or someone who was caught abusing their pokémon. _He's always been a little hero to pokémon._

* * *

At around nine o' clock, the door to Lisa's bedroom slowly creaked open and a younger looking man walked in. He was thirty four, but he still looked almost twenty. He looked around the spotless room, almost surprised. _I guess she did clean up_, he thought as he walked to the bed, where Lisa lay asleep.

"Lisa, honey," he whispered, "are you asleep?"

She groaned lightly and replied, "Not anymore, what time is it?"

"It's a little after nine," he said. "I just got home; the meeting ran a little late."

"Jeez, I'd say so," she said sleepily, wiping her eyes. "What was going on in that meeting?"

"Uh, just a lot of arguing," he replied casually, "you know, business stuff. Sorry I couldn't be here earlier, but we'll hang out tomorrow."

"Really?" she smiled up at her father, hoping he didn't have another meeting.

"Really, I'll even keep my phone off so they can't call me in," he said smiling, "Now get some sleep; you look tired from cleaning all day."

She just smiled as her father leaned in to kiss her forehead and left the room.

_I can't believe those idiots at the office, I had to give a whole speech over one little accident_, the man thought angrily, as he quietly shut the bedroom door and walked into the small living room. _You could kill a man with that much paperwork. Oh well, at least it's over. If they need me tomorrow then they can just forget it; I'm spending the day with my daughter!_

* * *

**Don't forget to leave your comments below.**


	4. Detour

**Hey, guys. Sorry about the ridiculously late post, but school has been kicking my rear.**

**Thank you for being patient and a special thanks to Sup-I'm-Andromeda and TheFrogFromHell for reviewing regularly. You guys really helped me improve my story up to this point and I hope you'll stick around.**

**Don't forget to review below!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, just this story.**

* * *

Ralts rolled over in its little shoebox and groaned. Suddenly, it noticed the material it laid on. Sitting up straight, it looked around Jerald's small bedroom. Its bed was sitting on a nightstand, with the lamp and alarm clock sitting on the light brown carpet. Jerald's bed was to its right, covered in blue sheets and pillowcase. A wardrobe stood to its left, right in the center of the wall, since there was no room for a closet due to the size of the attic's crawl space. There was a window with blue curtains behind it, the morning sun attempting to beam through the thin fabric. The staircase was right in front of it and it heard voices coming from downstairs.

"Alright, I'm all set," Jerald said, re-checking his supplies, "Now I'm just waiting for ralts."

Suddenly, he heard a crash from his bedroom upstairs. "Well, I guess it's awake," He said to his mother with a smile. She smiled back and continued working in the kitchen to prepare everyone's breakfast.

He walked to the foot of the stairs and looked up. He saw Ralts crawling to the edge of the top step to look down. When it saw him, it immediately crawled back.

_Isn't that…the boy who found me yesterday? So is this his house? I can't believe a human saved me, I guess they're not all bad…_ Ralts contemplated, as it tried to lay low against the carpet.

"It's ok, don't be scared of me. I'm actually a nice guy," Jerald called up, chuckling.

Ralts crawled forward just peeked over the edge, its big, red eyes inspecting its new acquaintance from under its green helmet of hair. He wore a pair of blue jean shorts and a red shirt with a pokéball on the front.

"Come on down, I won't bite," Jerald said, in a friendly tone, to which Ralts backed off just a little. "Ok, then I'm coming up."

Ralts laid its head on the soft carpet, watching the boy slowly make his way up the stairs. _I guess it's unavoidable_, it thought nervously_, let's see what it wants_.

As he reached the last few steps, he simply leaned over, almost lying, on the remaining steps, his head now eye-level with the nervous pokémon.

"Hi," He said with a smile, leaning his chin on his fists. "My name's Jerald, how are you?"

"Ralts?" It responded, still deciding what to think of him.

"Are you hungry?" Jerald asked with a smile. "Mom made you some food downstairs."

Ralts slowly stood up and hesitantly followed Jerald downstairs. As it reached the bottom steps, it stopped to survey its surroundings, carefully examining every possible direction before it followed Jerald into the living room. It looked around the room as it walked behind Jerald to the dining room. Not paying attention, it walked right into one of the table's legs.

"You're food is up here," Jerald said, reaching to pick up Ralts. He placed it on the table next to a small bowl of pokémon food. It looked around the medium sized table to find a totodile happily cramming the handfuls of food into its mouth. It stopped for only a moment to greet Ralts then instantly went back to its food.

Ralts turned back to its bowl of food to pick up a piece and cautiously sniffed it. Content with the scent it took a bite, and then it happily shoved the rest into its mouth. As it continued to eat, Jerald sat down next to it and watched as the pokémon became more and more comfortable around him. It sat down next to the small bowl to finish eating.

"Is it good?" Jerald asked with a smile. It gave a happy nod and kept on eating.

Just then, a loud sizzling noise filled the room accompanied by a pleasant scent.

"My breakfast is almost done!" Jerald told his pokémon excitedly.

A few minutes later, his mother came from the kitchen with a plate full of fresh pancakes topped with a medium-sized chunk of butter and completely covered in his favorite blueberry syrup. Normally, Jerald would attack his plate mercilessly, scooping up and savoring every delicious bite; however, remembering his guest (and his manners) he calmly chopped off a large chunk and shoved it into his mouth. Totodile stopped eating to gaze at the tall stack with desire. It stood and walked over to Jerald, still holding a piece of food, and handed it to him happily. Jerald, now distracted by the small piece of pokémon food he held, almost didn't notice the alligator shoving a dripping flapjack into its mouth.

"Hey, that was very rude!" Jerald scolded his starter. Totodile laughed mischievously, but became apologetic once it saw the scowl on Jerald's face.

"Well, was it good?" Jerald asked, relaxing his face into a smile. Totodile cried out happily.

"Good. Now go eat your food, this is mine!" Jerald replied, guarding his plate with his arms as Totodile returned to its own bowl.

Ralts chuckled lightly at the scene as it continued eating its breakfast. This was the first decent meal it had had since being kidnapped weeks before, and it savored every crunchy, delicious bite. Ralts looked around the house from where it sat and eventually stopped at Jerald. It and Totodile almost choked themselves to death laughing when they saw him bounce a piece of his breakfast off of his face, leaving a large triangle of syrup on his face. Jerald had to hurry and finish or his delicious dish would become mush as the syrup soaked into the cake-like substance, but he had time to laugh with his pokémon as he wiped his face with a napkin.

The three finished almost simultaneously, letting out a satisfied sigh and leaning back. Jerald let his head dangle from the back of his chair while Ralts and Totodile just lay on their backs. Noticing their level of synchronization, they couldn't help but to laugh together once again.

By the time Madison came in carrying her breakfast, they were already laid out and rubbing their stomachs happily.

"Good grief, you three!" she said in disbelief, "We're not going to run out of food. You guys should slow down next time."

She was a bit irritated that Jerald had finished before they could eat together, but he usually stayed at the table after he ate anyway. She placed her plate of eggs and bacon next to her own plate of pancakes and began to eat.

"So when are you leaving?" she asked, starting off the conversation.

"I don't know," Jerald answered, still leaning back in his chair, "but I'll definitely have to stop by Dan's and let him know what I'm doing. I also need to see if Ralts wants to come with me." It was almost a question, as he raised his head to eye the pokémon curiously.

_Go with him? Where are we going?_ it thought, _is he a trainer?_

"Ralts?" it said as it slightly cocked its head and waited patiently for an explanation.

"Today I was planning to go back to the forest to train, but no matter how much I train Totodile I still need another pokémon or two to challenge gym leaders with," Jerald explained. "So would you come with me? It will be lots of fun!"

Ralts thought for a moment. _The only place I really want to go is home,_ the small pokémon thought sadly, _Wait a second! Maybe if I help him long enough, I can convince him to take me home!_ "Ralts!" it cried happily.

"Great!" he responded. He bent down to his backpack, which lay at his feet, and pulled out a pokéball. Ralts recognized it immediately and backed away quickly. It had seen other pokémon being captured before, even some of its own family, and did not think it looked very comfortable.

"What's wrong?" Jerald asked, worriedly. "Do you know what this is?"

Ralts responded with a nod. "It's ok, I don't think it hurts or anything," he placed the ball on the table as he attempted to comfort the small creature.

The ralts didn't even move, staring suspiciously at the red and white orb. "Please, Ralts, if you're not captured by my pokéball then someone else can take you away in their ball," he pleaded.

Totodile walked over to give it a pat on the back and a few words of encouragement, happy to have a new friend to travel with. It lightly pushed Ralts towards the ball and curiosity got the better of the small, white pokémon. It slowly approached the ball, expecting something to happen. It poked around at it for a moment and looked curiously at Jerald.

"Press the button in the center to activate it," he said, casually.

Ralts cautiously pressed the button and was immediately engulfed in a red aura. Within a few moments, it was absorbed into the ball. The ball twitched a few times and clicked, signifying it was captured. Jerald waited a moment before releasing his newly claimed pokémon. After it re-materialized on the floor, it scurried around the corner that opens to the living room, and slowly peeked around at the two people watching it from the table.

"I assume you don't like it in there?" Jerald said, turning in his chair. "It's ok, you don't have to stay in your ball if you don't want to; that was just a formality. Now no one else can catch you!" He bent over to place the minimized ball inside the front pocket of his backpack and slinged it onto his back. Reaching around to one of its side pockets, he pulled out his favorite gloves and put them on as he walked over to Ralts and bent down to it. "So are we ready to go?"

Ralts leaned over suspiciously to eye his backpack, attempting to locate the pocket its ball was in. Able to guess its fear, he decided to explain himself. "Don't worry about the ball," he said with a smile, "I just need to bring it in case I need to put you somewhere safe. I promise I will never use it unless I have to."

_I'll hold you to that promise_, the ralts thought, satisfied with the statement. It nodded in response to his previous question.

His mother was still in her seat, cautiously watching Totodile as it edged closer and closer while she ate. She enjoyed breakfast and a show, but was disappointed that her son was about to leave. Jerald walked over to his mother to kiss her goodbye. She took one last bite of her pancakes, making sure the food scraped past her lips and gave her son a sticky kiss on the cheek. She giggled loudly as he wiped his cheek and said his final goodbyes. "Be careful," she added, as she walked the pair out the door. "I love you, and be home for dinner this time."

"I love you too, mom, bye!" Jerald responded, as he led both of his pokémon out into the busy city. He looked back to his house as he walked and he never saw his mother go inside. He waved goodbye as his house, and his mother, disappeared from view. After a moment of walking, Jerald stopped on the sidewalk.

"Oh, I forgot to check my pokédex," he said, fishing the device out of his pocket and pointed it to Ralts. The device repeated the message that Dan's had and displayed any other useful data. Ralts was a female, a foot and a half tall, 15 pounds, and it only knew two attacks: Growl and Confusion.

"Hmm, not much of a battler, are you?" he asked the confused ralts, who shook its head. "Don't worry, we can change that. Alright, gang, let's go!"

The first place Jerald took his new companions was to meet his friend, Dan. They didn't have far to walk. Even though they had only remained in the residential area, ralts was still amazed by the rows of one and two-story buildings. It had always lived in more rural areas with its family before it was lured away and kidnapped. Totodile, however, had been raised from an egg, so it was used to the city.

_Ralts is in for a shock when we go through the big part of town _Jerald thought with a chuckle, noticing his distraught pokémon.

* * *

When they arrived at Dan's house and knocked on the door, Dan's redheaded mother let them in. "Hello, Jerald," She greeted them. "Dan is in his room, come on in."

Ralts stuck to its trainer's heels as it walked into the unfamiliar house while Totodile casually walked beside him. The front door of the house opened up into a short hallway, only a few feet long, which opened up into the living room. The kitchen was the only other room connected to it. Enclosed in all sides, it held many cabinets hanging from the walls. The refrigerator on the front wall and the window, which was above the sink on the next wall, were all that disrupted the flow of wooden shelves. The living room was a television in the corner furthest from the door with a couch and a loveseat, connected at a right angle with an end table, which held a lamp. Dan's room was on the other side of the living room, with the small, messy bathroom right before it. To the left from the front door was the dining room, which only held a table and chairs. The bedroom belonging to Dan's mother was just past the dining room, which had a bathroom connected to it.

"Is that Ralts?" the rotund redhead asked with a smile. "It's so cute! Are you feeling better?"

The ralts nodded nervously, staying close to Jerald. "And this is Totodile!" Jerald added, motioning towards the small creature. The woman greeted the blue alligator while Jerald was already walking to Dan's room. Finally, Totodile noticed he was standing alone with Dan's mother at the door and chased Jerald into the messy bedroom.

The floor consisted of mostly trash from junk food, which always surprised Jerald because his friend was still thin. Dan was watching the small television mounted on top of his dresser, holding a teal blue egg topped with a strange tan pattern that resembled the top of a machop's head.

"Sup, Dan," He greeted his friend, "guess who's feeling better."

Ralts walked into the bedroom behind its trainer, eyeing the young man who sat on his bed. He still wore pajamas. Ralts recognized him immediately, but Totodile was just focused on the strange egg.

"Hi, my name is Dan," the boy greeted, happily. Ralts simply stared at him curiously. "Cool! A totodile! Hi there, little guy." Totodile greeted him happily and soon started kicking around the trash scattered on the floor.

"Are you ever gonna clean this room?" Jerald asked, kicking a path through the trash. "I wouldn't be surprised if a grimer was growing in your closet."

"Hey, I could always use a poison type," Dan joked.

"Ha ha, nice. Hey, has that thing still not hatched yet?" Jerald asked, pointing to the egg.

"Nope," he responded, examining it once again, "but I think it's close. So what's up?"

"Just thought I'd let you know how ralts was," Jerald responded, "I also wanted to let you know that I'm going to train some today before I try to battle Brock."

Dan sighed in exasperation. _He finally gets a pokémon and now I have to wait even longer._ "Alright, I don't blame you there," Dan finally stated, somewhat annoyed, "but I'm still going to challenge Brock today; you can do it when you're ready. Then we'll take Mt. Moon to Cerulean city. Just make sure you catch a few more pokémon, you won't beat a gym with just two."

"I know," Jerald responded, annoyed. "We better head out, seeya later!"

After saying their goodbyes to the Strange family, Jerald returned Totodile to its ball and led Ralts through town. It couldn't believe how large the buildings were, especially the pokémon center, which towered above all the others in that section of town. Finally, they reached the edge of town. As they neared the forest entrance, Ralts stopped for a moment. Suddenly, it heard a familiar noise. It pressed its hands to its ears and groaned loudly. It had heard the same sound while it ran away from its captors the day before too, but it was much more intense than it was now. It was over a few painful minutes later. _Where does that keep coming from!?_

"Are you ok?" Jerald asked, bending down to check on Ralts. "What happened?"

_Wait, you didn't hear that?_ It thought, pointing to where its ears would be.

Jerald thought for a moment. Finally, he asked, "Did you hear that noise? Just like yesterday?" Ralts nodded, still holding the sides of its head.

_So I was right._ "Well, whatever it was, it's gone now," Jerald smiled, trying to comfort it. "Did you hear which direction it came from?" It did not; the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Well, I'm sorry," Jerald responded. "Come on, let's go."

Instead of leading his pokémon into the forest, Jerald turned to the east while the confused Ralts trailed behind. After a few moments of walking, they came to a cave opening in a wall of rock. A sign next to the opening read "Diglett Cave." Ralts patted Jerald's leg to get his attention and pointed towards the forest.

"We'll go through the forest later, first we need to catch more pokémon to battle Brock," Jerald explained. "Diglett is perfect against his rock pokémon."

Ralts had no idea what he was talking about, but it followed him into the cave anyway.


	5. Darkness

**A few tweaks and voila! I finally had time to work on this chapter!**

**The only real change is the battle scene at the end. If you already read the original, feel free to skip.**

**Don't forget to review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon**

* * *

Jerald and Ralts stepped into the dimly lit cave, which was obviously carved out by man. The small cavern was a rounded square, with weak lights hanging from wire along the top of the outer walls. A stone ladder could be seen in the dead center of the room. The faint chanting of busy diglett and dugtrio could be heard from below, still expanding their already sizeable home.

Jerald slowly and carefully mounted the damp ladder and climbed down enough to be level with his curious pokémon, who was too small to safely climb down. Jerald held his hand out to Ralts' feet.

"Climb on, I'll carry you down," He said cheerfully. Ralts hesitated at first but it knew he was trustworthy. It stepped into his hand and fell to its hands and knees as he carefully pulled the small figure securely into his chest as he descended the cold ladder. He stepped onto the hard, rocky floor and looked around in both directions. The tunnel was just high enough for him to walk and wide enough for him to touch both walls with his hands. The tunnel was lit in the same way as the cavern above.

"Wow, I can't believe this place goes all the way to Vermillion City," Jerald commented, "maybe even further."

The ralts moved around in his grip, trying to get him to let it down. Jerald placed his small pokémon next to his feet and started walking ahead. After a few minutes they came to a large cavern, which had been the source of the commotion made by the diglett and dugtrio. The ceiling was about the same distance from his head as the tunnel, while the cave opened up below them. A steady slope to their left was the only way down. From above, it looked almost as if the ground below was moving. It practically was since the diglett had to carry the dirt and rock on their heads.

"There are tons of them down here!" he said quietly, "I guess we should just pick one and go." He felt bad for the diglett since he was about to take one of their workers, so he decided he would try to befriend one instead of just attacking them all at once. That was plan B.

Jerald and Ralts carefully descended the dirt ramp and walked out on the completely unearthed floor. A diglett close by saw them coming and cried out to warn the others. The cave was instantly still and silent as the mole pokémon stared at the outsiders. All at once, they ducked into their respective holes. The quiet rumbling of the ground suggested that they were running away.

"Looks like this is going to take longer than I thought," Jerald said thoughtfully, deciding which of the many tunnels he should search. Only a few of these tunnels had lights installed in them. _Surely there aren't five tunnels in five different directions that lead to Vermillion, I wonder why those are lit,_ Jerald thought, _well I'm definitely not going down a dark tunnel. No matter what, though, I need to leave a trail so I can get back. _He laid his backpack on the ground to look for something he could use to mark the path they chose. He pulled a notepad and a pen from the main pocket. _This will have to do,_ he thought as he scribbled on a page to check the pen.

While he did that, Ralts was looking around the room they were in and peering down a few holes to check for diglett. _These pokémon are weird_, it thought as it checked another hole, _are they worms?_

"Come on, Ralts, let's go this way," Jerald said, pointing at a lit tunnel across the room.

Ralts didn't move, wishing that they were in the forest instead.

"Would you rather stay there alone?" Jerald argued. Immediately, the ralts ran to his side and they began walking through the maze of tunnels. At every intersection, Jerald would map out the split and mark which direction they went. He planned to follow it backwards to get out.

After about an hour or two, Jerald stopped to look at his map. He had already used up three pieces of paper, linking the paths that connect between pages with letters. The tunnel system seemed like a never-ending maze dotted with only a few more large caverns. They hadn't even seen any more diglett and Ralts was getting anxious as it looked around.

"Alright, we better head back so we don't get too far off course," Jerald finally said to Ralts, turning around. He led his pokémon down a few tunnels according to his map. By the time he had turned the page, he had walked too far to tell what tunnel they were at now. _What a great idea this was_, he thought as he followed the lighted tunnels, _surely I'll come out eventually if I follow these lights. _He looked down at his frightened pokémon, who peered anxiously down each tunnel as they passed, probably looking for anything familiar. He sighed and just stopped walking.

"Alright, I'll admit it: we're lost," he said, watching the ralts begin to panic. _Great choice of words, genius._ "Don't worry, we'll find our way out, let's just take a quick break." He took a deep breath and leaned back on the tunnel's wall behind him. After a moment, he fell through the thick wall and into the adjacent tunnel, which was also lit.

"Great, another path," he said sarcastically, as he lay there. Just then, a diglett popped up a few yards from his head. It looked at the wall and then back at him, puzzled.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," he apologized to the mole, hoping he didn't break something he shouldn't have. The diglett simply bounced happily. Relieved, Jerald tried to stand, but accidentally knocked down another part of the wall. He froze, waiting for Diglett's response, but it seemed happy that he broke the wall. He cautiously pushed out another part with the same reaction, so he took off his gloves and started his demolition.

As he worked, more diglett popped up beside the first and seemed to cheer him on. Suddenly, they were all frantic. Jerald began digging up so he could stand straight and came to a layer of rock. Jerald only heard the diglett shouting, but Ralts knew that they were trying to tell him to stop. It was already too late. The whole place seemed to shake as the rocks embedded in the ceiling shook loose and came crashing down all around them, also dragging down tons of dirt. Jerald instinctively pounced onto his ralts to shield it from the falling earth while the diglett ducked back into their holes.

The rock slide lasted for a few minutes then suddenly, everything was quiet. After the dust cleared, most of the tunnels were now filled with dirt and rocks of multiple sizes. Jerald was still curled up over his ralts, waiting for his chance to dig out. The weight on his back was immense, he quickly moved his arm behind him to try to claw his way out. As he carefully dragged the dirt from his back under him, he was slowly able to rise before the place on his back refilled with dirt. Feeling around for his ralts in the pitch darkness, he took it up in his left arm while he pushed away more and more of the weight that threatened to suffocate them both. Finally standing straight up, he punched through the top of the pile into the tunnel above. He placed the sputtering ralts on the ground above him and climbed out. Sitting on the edge of the hole he had just made, he tried to recollect himself. He looked around for a moment and instantly saw what he did wrong. He had dug out the floor of another passageway, which was now a few feet above his head.

After Ralts had finished coughing up soil, it marched over to Jerald and gave him a hard punch on the arm. It was surprisingly strong despite its size. Jerald recoiled a little and checked the small red mark among the dirt, which now decorated his entire body, as it glared at him accusingly.

"Sorry, I didn't know that would happen," he defended, holding his hands up, "are you ok?" The ralts simply huffed and turned away from him, dusting itself off. _A bit sassy, aren't we?_ He thought to himself as he looked over its small body. To his relief, he could only see a few small scratches. As he began to dust himself off, a diglett popped up next to him again.

"S-Sorry," Jerald apologized again, scratching the back of his head with a nervous smile. The diglett didn't seem too upset. As the other diglett began to reappear, it seemed to give each one a different order. They began to chant once again, "diglett dig, diglett dig, diglett dig," as they went to work around the pair, pushing aside more dirt than they carried away.

Jerald stood and grabbed Ralts to climb into the tunnel above, trying to keep out-of-the-way. The diglett joined them and looked on the scene, still shouting orders when needed. After a few minutes, it seemed satisfied with the busy workers and turned to Ralts, who was still in its trainer's arms.

"Dig diglett dig?" it offered. Ralts understood it as "Do you two need help out of here?"

"Ralts, ral ralts" Ralts responded, saying "Yes please, he's useless as a navigator," and motioning to Jerald.

"Diglett, dig dig. Diglett." diglett replied cheerfully "Down here, everyone is. This way."

The ralts got Jerald's attention and pointed towards diglett as it pushed its way down the dark tunnel. Jerald understood and followed, pulling his flashlight out of a side pocket in his backpack. They continued down a series of dark tunnels and eventually came to a stop. Still surrounded by darkness, save for the small flashlight, the diglett turned to the pair.

"Dig diglett dig diglett lett diglett" it expalined to Ralts, who heard "Just bust through this wall and you'll be in the big cave you came in from." Ralts jumped out of Jerald's arms and started pounding on the wall, trying to at least poke a hole through it.

"Uh, is it really safe to do that?" Jerald asked, worriedly. Diglett nodded happily. He cautiously pushed out a piece of the wall and squeezed through, trying not to knock it down. Once he was through, he looked around at the familiar surroundings. He sighed in relief when he looked behind him and saw a steady slope leading up to a lighted tunnel.

"Phew, I was afraid we'd never get back," he said, as Ralts squeezed through the wall and walked over to him. The diglett, who had already resurfaced at his feet, curiously gazed up at the passage. Seeing this, Jerald bent down to the diglett.

"Hey, why don't you come with us," he asked with a smile, "I could use a diglett on my team."

This request caught the diglett off guard. It knew that people came down there to catch diglett all the time, but it never expected that it would be asked to leave like this. The mole pokémon seemed apprehensive. It was a big decision, you can't just suddenly decide that you want to leave your home. It was the only place it ever knew. At the same time, it really wanted to see what was out there. In an instant the three were surrounded by many diglett and dugtrio, who all seemed to encourage the diglett.

"Diglett, dig diglett lett dig" one said, meaning, "Go on, this is your chance to see the world,"

"Dig diglett dig, lett dig diglett dig" another commented, meaning, "You always said you were curious, why not go out there and see?"

"Trio dug trio trio?" A dugtrio asked, worried about its friend, which meant, "Is this guy even a good trainer?"

"Diglett dig dig," the diglett in question said, turning to Jerald. Ralts understood it saying, "I guess we'll find out." Diglett turned to Jerald and flung a cloud of dust at his legs.

"So you wanna fight, huh?" he asked, smiling as he shook off his legs. "Alright, I'll catch you the old fashioned way!" Jerald backed out of the battlefield, as did the other pokémon. The only two left in the space were Ralts and Diglett.

"Hey, Ralts," Jerald called, thumbing Totodile's pokéball, "did you want to battle?"

_Hmm, not really_ Ralts thought, turning to walk beside it's trainer and out of the battle.

As Ralts moved off of the battlefield, Jerald called out his totodile. Totodile emerged from its ball energetically, jumping and dancing happily in place. Diglett seemed to shrug it off and charged at the blue alligator, shouting wildly. _Astonish, _Jerald identified immediately. Totodile could only stand and watch as the mole came closer and knocked it to the ground with a powerful body slam. Totodile bounced back onto its feet immediately and waited for a command.

"Totodile, use Water Gun!" Jerald shouted. Totodile reared back and unleashed a steady stream of water from its mouth. Diglett ducked into its hole to dodge, allowing the water to part the crowd of spectators behind it.

"Watch out, Totodile," Jerald said. "It could come up anywhere!"

Totodile nodded, steadily scanning the area for any movement. Suddenly, the ground behind Totodile shifted.

"Behind you!" Jerald yelled, but it was too late. Diglett sprang from the ground just as Totodile turned, pelting the water type with dirt and rock as it tackle alligator to the ground.

"Get up and use Bite!" Jerald shouted as Diglett charged in for a Body Slam. Totodile stood and ran at the mole, baring its teeth as they glowed with a dark aura. As the two pokémon met, Totodile leaped at the mole and latched onto its head.

"Nice! Hang on tight, you almost got him!" Jerald cheered as the diglett ran back and forth frantically, carrying the small alligator on its head. Finally, it ducked into its hole and scraped off Totodile. Totodile struggled frantically trying to pull its head out, but it was stuck.

"Use Water Gun, max power!" Jerald commanded after a moment, hoping to free his pokémon's head. Totodile went still for a moment, but was soon launched a few feet into the air, followed by a strong stream of water. Totodile landed on its back only a few feet from where Diglett slowly pushed through the dirt, gasping for air. Seeing that the mole was weak, he pulled out an empty pokéball and threw it. The ball twitched a few times, but soon clicked and lay still.

Jerald happily retrieved the ball and turned to see diglett's friends. Smiling, he said, "Don't worry guys, I'll take good care of him! Here, I'll let you see him off." The diglett re-materialized in their midst and began saying its good-byes. Jerald decided to check his pokédex for his new pokémon while he waited. He silenced the device to avoid the echoes of the cave and read the description to himself.

_Diglett, the mole pok_émon. _Due to its dark habitat, diglett do not usually appear above ground during sunny days. Its thin skin allows it blood to boil in prolonged exposure to the sun, use extreme caution. Height: 0.8 inches. Weight: 2 lbs. Gender: male. It knows Sand Attack, Dig, Growl, Body Slam, Mud Shot, and Astonish. _Ralts watched Jerald curiously as he put away his pokédex and Diglett approached.

"Ready?" he asked his newest recruit, who nodded happily. "Alright, let's go." He led his three pokémon up the slope and stopped. Walking over to the edge, he waved to the crowd below and said goodbye; his pokémon did the same.

The group turned to travel down the dim tunnel, with Diglett leaving a single, lone trail of upturned dirt all the way to the stone ladder. Jerald pulled his gloves out of his pocket to put them on and picked up his ralts. He then motioned for Totodile to hop onto his shoulder, who happily obliged.

"Sorry, you're gonna have to dig your way up," Jerald said to Diglett as he mounted the ladder, "I would put you in your ball, but leaving the cave is a big step and I want you to take it yourself."

The diglett responded happily and ducked into its hole as Jerald climbed up. To his amazement, Diglett waited for him at the top. He placed Ralts on the floor and started off toward the cave entrance. Diglett's heart pounded wildly and it could barely contain itself as it trudged outside. They all squinted at the afternoon sun's powerful rays, stopping for a moment to let their eyes adjust.

Diglett was astounded by the beauty of its new surroundings. Jerald leaned on the wall of the cave, allowing the diglett to explore the area for a moment. He watched as his three pokémon laughed and played together in the grass, which became uprooted every time Diglett moved.

_Man, we were down there a long time,_ Jerald thought as he looked up at the sun, _it's already after noon, it wasn't a wasted morning though._ He smiled as he peered into the forest, excited to continue his trip. _Now we're ready to train!_

* * *

The sun was high over the busy streets of Pewter City. Lisa checked her phone as she and her father pushed through the crowd. It was nearly three o' clock and they had another half an hour to waste before their movie started. Lisa already had a fun time with her father that day; they had gone shopping, stopped at a fancy restaurant for lunch, gotten ice cream for dessert, stopped to get Lisa's nails done, and now they were wandering around near the theater. Lisa's film of choice was "Love Lasts Forever." Just the name disgusted her father, but she wanted to see it and that's all that mattered.

As they were perusing the marketplace, Lisa heard a familiar voice calling for her.

"Hey!"

_Oh no, not this kid, _she thought as she turned to see Dan walking straight towards them, now wearing decent clothing.

"Hi!" she responded halfheartedly. "What's up?"

"Not much, about to go train," he replied, "the Machop egg my dad gave me just hatched and I want to get him ready to fight Brock! What's new with you?"

"Just out with my dad," she said, "we're about to go catch a movie, so-"

"Hello, boy," her father interrupted, reaching to shake his hand, "the name's Chase, good to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, sir," Dan said, shaking his hand, "my name's Dan.

"Lisa told me about you earlier today," Chase commented, "I'm glad you and your friend were able to check on her."

"Don't start," she whispered to her father.

"No problem, always here to help," Dan said with a smile. "We were just out catching pokémon and saw the explosion. We actually found a really cool one after we found...Lisa?" He directed the question to her and she nodded and rolled her eyes when he turned to answer her father's next question, "What was it?"

"It's called a 'Ralts'," he responded, "the pokédex said they live in the Hoenn region."

"That is pretty cool," Lisa commented, genuinely interested, "do you know how it got here?"

"No, we assumed some trainer abandoned it," Dan replied, "it looked horrible, like it was mauled by an ursaring."

Chase didn't hear a single word after he said "Ralts," he froze and seemed to stare right through Dan. _This kid found it!? Where is it!? I have to play it cool._

"Daddy? Are you ok?" Lisa asked, shaking him from his thoughts.

"Uh, yeah, I'm just...A little surprised, that's all," he said, trying not to appear suspicious, "so, uh, where is it?"

"I let my friend, Jerald, have it since he didn't have a pokémon yet," he said proudly, trying to impress Lisa. "He's out training right now. Once he gets back, we're leaving to challenge all the gyms in Kanto!"

"What a coincidence," Chase said quickly, smiling widely, "Lisa is leaving soon too! Why don't you go with them? I would feel much better about you traveling with your new friends!"

"But daddy, I was going to leave tomorrow!" she argued.

"You can wait another day or two, can't you? Besides, we can spend tomorrow together too," he replied. "I'll be broke after today, so we'll have to stay home, but we can still have fun!"

"Fine," she agreed reluctantly.

"Great!" Dan replied, smiling as he saw his chance. "Can I have your phone number? I'll call you when we're about to leave."

As Dan happily keyed in Lisa's phone number on his dark blue pokétch, Chase became anxious; he had to get away to call his superiors. He knew it would be easy to get away from Lisa, but first he needed an excuse to leave this kid. He checked his watch and smiled, it was about 2:20.

"Uh-oh!" he said aloud to get both of their attentions. "Lisa, look at the time. The movie is about to start!"

"Oh-no," she instantly took the bait, "we have to go now, I'll talk to you in a couple of days, I guess."

"Uh, ok bye," Dan said quickly as the two hurried off into town._ Maybe I should go see a movie_, he thought with a smile,_ No, I have to go train! I'll see her in a couple of days, anyway. _He turned towards Mt. Moon and began to walk, stopping at a couple of stores for supplies on the way.


	6. Encounter

**Hey guys, sorry I took so long. I've had a busy summer so far.**

**This is the last installment of this story's rewrite. From now on I'll have to write from scratch.**

**No promises on when the next chapter will be out, but I want to thank you all for your patience.**

**Enjoy! ^_^**

* * *

Chase relaxed a bit as he and Lisa entered the theater. _Okay, so I got rid of that loser. Now I just need a few minutes to myself, _he thought as they walked up to the kiosk and bought their tickets.

"Honey, why don't you go grab us a seat?" Chase said, handing her a ticket. "I'm going to the restroom."

"Okay, I'll try to get a seat on the top row," she replied as she walked to the auditorium.

Chase hurried to the restroom and locked himself in the farthest stall from the door, checking the other stalls to make sure no one was in there with him. He leaned against the wall and searched through his contacts. He finally found the name he was searching for, "Domino ;)." _Let's hope she'll listen long enough_, he thought as he pressed the send button.

Back at the Team Rocket base, the ringing of a telephone echoed loudly through the executive restroom. Domino stood at the mirror, trying desperately to fix her blonde hair. It was still charred from the day before when the room had exploded around her. She groaned loudly and reached for her phone.

_Oh no, not this dork again_, she thought with disgust as she read the caller ID. She opened her phone and yelled as she pressed it against her ear, "I told you to stop calling me! You are ten years older than me, move on!" She immediately snapped her phone shut and went back to her hair. She groaned angrily when her phone rang again. This time, she flipped the switch to put the device on vibrate and let her voicemail answer.

Chase bounced the back of his head on the wall behind him when he heard the recording of her voicemail. After the infamous "beep", he began his rant.

"Damn it, Domino, not everything is about you! I know where that ralts is; some kid named 'Jerald' found it in the forest and is still out there right now! Get some people down there before he comes back!" He simply sighed when he hit the end button. He opened the stall door and started to walk out when he came face to face with an older man, who looked dumbfounded. The two silently washed their hands and went their separate ways.

* * *

In the forest, Jerald and Ralts continued to wonder aimlessly in search of wild pokémon. They had gotten lost a few times, but Jerald quickly figured out where they were based on childhood memories. He and Dan had played, and been lost, in the forest for most of their childhood, so both of them knew the land well.

"Man, there are still no pokémon out," Jerald said and sighed, looking around as he walked. "Well, I guess whatever scared them off yesterday is still around. It was probably that sound you heard earlier, right Ralts?"

Jerald looked down to his distraught ralts, who seemed on edge about something. It didn't even seem to have heard him the entire time they were in the forest, like it knew something was wrong but couldn't say it.

"You okay?" he asked.

The pokémon looked up at him for a moment but soon turned away again. It seemed to be deep in thought.

_What is going on here?_ Ralts thought worriedly. _I know I've felt this before, but where?_

"Hurry up and fix that thing!" said a voice from somewhere nearby. "No, connect that wire _there!_"

The two looked around for a moment and soon saw the source of the voice: two Team Rocket grunts fiddling with a small machine. One of them, who looked like a teenager, was poking around in an open panel of the machine with tweezers. The other, who was tall and lanky, appeared to be shouting directions.

Jerald and Ralts sneaked closer and ducked behind a large bush. Ralts peeked around the bush and its soft complexion took on a look of absolute horror. It quickly crawled into the center of the bush and curled up in a ball, trying to hide from the two.

"What's wrong?" Jerald whispered to the frightened pokemon. "Don't worry, these crooks are just a couple of screwballs. We can take them." Ralts refused to even move, quivering in fear.

"There!" the grunt holding the machine cried out. "Now we can find that stupid ralts."

Jerald froze. Looking back and forth between his ralts and the grunts, he slowly began to fit the pieces together. _Those crooks are the ones who did that to Ralts!?_ he thought as he began to shake with anger. His rage was so intense that Ralts was more afraid of him than the grunts, for the moment. The grunts clicked on the machine and Ralts winced in pain, just as it had outside of PewterCity. Jerald hardly noticed, since he was too busy thinking of how many ways he could rip one of the grunts' heads off.

"Let's see," the grunt said, examining the screen on the device. "It's picking up something over there! Let's check it out."

The two began to walk towards Jerald. Before they could even get close, he launched himself from his hiding place and ran straight for the thieves. He let out a loud battle cry as he tackled the pair to the ground. He mounted one of them and began to beat him senseless. The other pulled the boy away from his victim and tried to attack, but Jerald could not be stopped. He blocked a few of the grunts' punches, the rest landing hard on his chest and head. He pushed the grunt into a nearby tree and wrapped his hand around his neck.

"What did you do to that poor ralts?!" Jerald shouted, his face burning a bright red.

"I-I don't know! Honest!" the grunt replied, shocked that Jerald had pinned him so easily. "We were just sent to bring it back! They didn't tell us anything!"

"Then where's your base?!" Jerald interrogated fiercely.

"I'm not telling you! My superiors would kill me!" the grunt shouted.

"They won't have the chance if you don't tell me!" Jerald retaliated, trying to intimidate him, but to no avail. "Tell me!" Jerald demanded again, beating the grunt's head on the tree. The grunt shrunk to the ground, appearing unconscious.

Jerald sighed loudly. _Whatever, I couldn't do anything about it alone anyway. _

Jerald walked over to pick up the device the grunts had been using. It appeared to be a tracking device that used sonic waves to detect the area around it, like a zubat. The device was set to just be a motion tracker, but it also held the ability to display surrounding terrain. Jerald flipped the switch to begin tracking. The device picked up a few faint blips, so Jerald turned up the power to get a better reading. When he did, he could hear his ralts screaming from the bush, and the forest seemed to come alive with distant cries of bug pokémon.

"So this is what made that noise," he said in a serious tone, still angry at the unconscious Rockets. "Why does it hurt the pokémon when it's used? I'm sure it would be an easy problem to fix if they actually cared."

As the cries died down, Jerald continued to examine the screen. Little red dots, which he assumed to be reinforcements for the two Rockets he had just knocked out, were moving quickly from the west. Jerald hastily placed the device in a small pocket of his backpack, knowing it could come in handy later. He walked over to the bush his ralts still hid in. He reached in to grab the pokemon, but it pushed away from him. Dan's pokédex's entry echoed in his mind: "It hides if it senses hostility."

Jerald took a deep breath and tried again. "It's okay," he said softly, trying to dispel his rage. "I'm on your side, remember?" This time he was able to slowly fish his pokémon out of the bush and pull it in close, trying to comfort it. "Don't worry, I won't let those jerks hurt you again," he said softly. He carefully stood up, still holding Ralts. "But we have to move fast – more of them are coming."

In a matter of minutes, Jerald could hear the voices of distraught grunts in pursuit. Ralts, still in Jerald's arms, clung desperately to the strap on his backpack to avoid falling. The heavy backpack shifted and bounced uncomfortably on his back as he dashed, dodged, and jumped through the dim forest, just staying ahead of his pursuers.

Suddenly, a houndoom rushed forward and rammed Jerald's back. Jerald rolled across the forest floor. He stopped himself on a nearby tree, pulled himself back up, and flanked, barely dodging a vicious bite attack. As Houndoom closed the gap once more, Ralts panicked and hit it with a formidable Confusion attack. Jerald continued to flee as the dog pranced in place, trying to regain its composure.

Even though the houndoom had failed to stop Jerald, it had given Team Rocket enough time to catch up. Jerald stayed just ahead of a small group of grunts, weaving through the forest to shake them off. Only a few remained as Jerald began to outrun them.

"Koffing, stop that kid!" one of the grunts yelled, tossing a ball in front of Jerald.

"You too, Vigoroth!"

"And Golbat!"

The grunts sounded off as all three pokémon materialized in Jerald's path. Vigoroth stood on the ground between the two others, who hovered in midair, ready for battle. The pokémon stood poised to attack. Jerald wasted no time. He ran straight towards the koffing, holding his breath to avoid its gas. The koffing fired a smokescreen, hoping to disorient Jerald, who simply ducked out of the cloud with Ralts pressed into his chest.

Jerald quickly came upon a small clearing in the forest. The trees were still grown out enough to cover most of the sun, what did shine through landed on Jerald in the center. He looked around the edge of the clearing, spotting at least seven grunts approaching from every direction. Each grunt had his pokémon with him, waiting to strike. In front of him were two grunts that stood behind a drowzee, a zubat, and a metang. To his left were two more grunts that stood behind an arbok and a raticate. To his right was one more that stood with a shelgon and a kingdra, who flapped the small wings on its back to stay upright. The last two grunts were behind him, with their three pokémon: Koffing, Vigoroth, and Golbat.

"Well, this is a fine mess," Jerald said somewhat to himself as he examined the situation. He knew he could not take them all on with just two pokémon, but he couldn't let them have Ralts!

Behind Jerald, one familiar Rocket pushed past the others and approached Jerald with a smug look on his face. Jerald recognized him as the one he had tried to question. _So he was just playing possum_, Jerald thought as he turned to face the Rocket. _Should've figured._

"So, thought you could get away huh?" the grunt taunted. "Just give us that ralts and we might let you go."

"Not a chance!" Jerald responded, holding Ralts more tightly. "I saw how much you hurt it; I won't let you do it again!"

The grunt rushed forward and took Jerald by the collar.

"Look, kid, I don't have time to deal with you right now," he said as he slowly moved his free hand toward Ralts. "Our boss wants this thing back, so just play nice and-aaaahh!"

The grunt's cry was much higher pitched than it should have been. Jerald had strategically thrust his knee between the grunt's legs, forcing him to the ground.

"Take this kid out!" the grunt squeaked as he eased up and staggered back behind his allies.

All at once the grunts called out their commands, nearly drowning each other out. Jerald didn't even have time to release his pokémon before he was faced with a volley of attacks from all directions. He jumped out of the way, barely dodging the raticate's quick attack as he escaped an explosion of special attacks. Once the dust cleared, the raticate was left unconscious on the ground.

"Stupid rat," the grunt groaned as he recalled the pokémon. "Misdreavous, you're up!"

Jerald eyed the two pokémon. The black and red tinted ghost, which now hovered beside Arbok, cackled as it examined its next victim. Jerald knew his pokémon had an advantage over the poison and ghost type duo, but he needed to isolate them. Jerald pondered his plan as he waited to dodge the next attack.

The grunts were smarter about their second attack. While the others charged their most powerful attacks, Drowzee was commanded to use Hypnosis. Jerald began to feel very sleepy as the yellow and black pokémon began waving its arms, almost as if it was performing some strange dance. Suddenly, a yellow blur swept by and knocked the drowzee on its back. Jerald shook himself awake just in time to dodge another wave of attacks. Jerald caught only a glimpse of the blur as it used Quick Attack to slam into all five of the pokémon in front of him. After slamming the kingdra's head into the ground, a wild pikachu landed in the center of the clearing. It only glanced at Jerald, focusing its attention on Team Rocket.

"Pika!" it cried loudly as it turned to face its psychic opponent. The forest around them erupted with bug and grass pokémon, accompanied by another group of pikachu. Jerald stood and watched the scene unfold. The numbers against Team Rocket were overwhelming, but they were able to hold their ground. Jerald only saw the zubat and the koffing faint before he turned to face his best chance of escape.

"Ralts, focus on that misdreavous," he said as he sat it on the ground and released Diglett. "Diglett, use Dig on that arbok." Diglett immediately ducked into its hole and moved toward the distracted snake. Ralts slowly moved toward the misdreavous, who glared viciously.

"Ralts, use Confusion," Jerald commanded. The ghost pokémon feigned pain but easily shook off the attack. A moment later, the ghost laughed loudly and fired a Shadow Ball at its trainer's command. Ralts jumped out of the way, standing up to run back to its trainer. Misdreavous, however, wasn't finished playing with its opponent. It fired Shadow Balls all around Ralts, pushing the small pokémon wherever it wanted. Ralts was so scared that all it could do was run. The grunt commanding the ghost tried desperately to make it finish off Ralts, but Midreavous was having too much fun.

_Not good, _Jerald thought anxiously_. _"Totodile, help Ralts out with water gun!" he cried, throwing his ball forward. Totodile sprang from its ball and fired a strong stream of water at its opponent. The ghost dodged easily but acknowledged the alligator as more of a threat than its most recent victim. Totodile and its new allies easily defeated the ghost by using a combination of Stun Spore and Bite.

Diglett simply ducked around the arbok using Dig and occasionally fired a powerful Mud Shot attack from its mouth, defeating the snake without taking much damage. Jerald was proud of its speed. He quickly grabbed his exhausted Ralts and pushed through the two shocked grunts, who were also under attack by multiple bug pokémon.

Jerald quickly led his team away from the brawl, hoping they wouldn't be followed. Once they could no longer hear the battle, they all stopped to catch their breath. Panting, Jerald noticed the trail Diglett had left and quickly voiced his concern.

"Maybe I should return you, Diglett," he said with a smile. "Good job, buddy. You too, Totodile." The two pokémon responded happily as they were absorbed into their balls.

"Ralts, are you ok?" Jerald asked, still panting.

"Ralts..." it responded sadly.

"Hey, it's okay," he said, patting it on the head. "You're not hurt, that's all that matters. Let's just hope they don't follow us."

Jerald looked around where they had stopped and sighed. _I guess I don't know every inch of this forest after all… Where are we?_

"Pika!"

Jerald jumped at the sound, having thought they were alone. He scanned the forest around him looking for the source.

"Pi pikachu!" it cried again. Ralts heard, "Hey, up here!" It quickly located the pikachu high up in the trees and pointed it out to Jerald.

"Hey, thanks for the help back there," Jerald said to the mouse, who seemed hurried.

"Pika pi, chu pikachu!" it yelled as it motioned south. It had said, "There's no time, follow me!" It leaped from tree to tree, stopping frequently to urge them on.

Finally, Jerald realized what it was doing and followed it. They could hardly keep up with the small mouse as it hopped around above their heads, especially since Jerald was watching the pikachu more than the obstacles he kept tripping over. Finally, Jerald realized where they were.

"Hey Pikachu, I know where to go from here!" Jerald said, redirecting his path northeast towards Pewter. "Thanks for the help!"

"Pika!" it replied happily, turning back into the thick of the forest. As the small mouse hopped around in the trees, it noticed a short, black figure watching from the darkness. The familiar creature grinned widely and nodded to the yellow pokémon, who returned the gesture and hurried back to finish off Team Rocket.

* * *

**Alright, the stage is set! In the next chapter, the adventure begins!**

**Don't forget to leave a review!**


	7. Departure

**Hey guys, it's been a while hasn't it?**

**Sorry about that, I guess I've gotten a bit lazy over the summer. **

**Sorry if some parts seem a little rushed, but I wanted to get this out for you guys.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"You morons!" Domino shouted at her bruised subordinates, who had been driven out of Viridian Forest. "I can't believe you let a bunch of bugs stop you from catching one child! You were trained to track and capture the most powerful pokémon in the world and you couldn't even catch a silly little Ralts!? Explain yourselves!"

The grunts cringed as they stood at attention in a small meeting hall in the same base that Ralts was held in, the sound of construction could be faintly heard from upstairs. They knew Agent 009 had a short temper, but they had never seen her this angry. Her face, which looked even more threatening now that she wore her singed bangs under her large hat, had turned red from rage. She stood with her arms crossed at the front of the room, tapping her foot angrily as she waited for someone to step forward and suffer her wrath. One of the squad's leaders stepped forward to speak, forcing the brunette hiding behind him to slide her hat over her face.

"W-we apologize, ma'am," he started, trying to get on her good side, "the entire forest was against us, we were completely unprepared for an onslaught of that magnitude. The boy took advantage of their numbers and escaped, we assume he has already returned to Pewter City. Don't worry, we'll catch him."

The grunt stepped back in line as quickly as possible so she wouldn't focus her yelling on him.

"You people are completely useless! He was right where you wanted him!" she ranted. "You're lucky I don't strip you of your ranks and get a new team! Find that kid or it's your asses that will fry! Dismissed!"

As the company hurried out of the room, Domino eyed the brunette.

"And Mona!" She said, forcing the woman to stop. "I suggest you participate in your next _assigned_ mission, unless you don't mind losing your job."

The woman clenched her fist angrily and marched out of the room, using all her strength to bite her toungue.

Once everyone had gone, Domino took a seat in the corner of the room. She leaned over on the small table in front of her and groaned loudly, rubbing her temples. _I gave those idiots one job and they screwed it up because of a bunch of bugs! I knew these grunts were cheap labor, but I didn't think they could screw up something so simple! _Suddenly, her phone started ringing again. Startled, she looked down at the small phone. It was another reminder about Chase's voice message. She had avoided it all day, but now she was so frustrated that she thought she couldn't get any more annoyed. She pressed the button and listened to the message, shocked. She thrust the device into the small pocket of her black and white skirt and dashed to the nearest control room, cursing to herself as she did so.

"Get me everything you can on a kid named 'Jerald' based on the description Squad Gamma provided from today's mission!" she yelled as she flung open the door. "Hurry up; we don't have any time to spare!"

* * *

"Totodile, watch out!" Jerald shouted, just before the alligator was pummeled by a large rock thrown by Brock's geodude.

"Totodile is unable to continue," the referee cried from the sidelines.

"Great job, buddy," Jerald said as he recalled his fainted pokémon. "Okay, Ralts, go get him!"

After a moment of silence, Jerald turned to see his psychic pokémon asleep on top of his backpack.

Jerald kicked the bag lightly. "Come on, Ralts, time to battle!"

The small pokémon sat up slowly, rubbing its eyes. Comprehending what Jerald said, it waved him off and retrieved a blanket from Jerald's stuffed backpack to pull over its body. Jerald sighed, trying to ignore Dan's laughter. He turned back to Brock, who watched curiously.

"She didn't really want to train either," Jerald said with a chuckle.

Brock smiled slightly. "Your pokémon doesn't respect you yet. Just be patient and help it grow, you'll be friends in no time!"

Jerald nodded as he pulled out Diglett's pokéball. "Let's finish this, Diglett! Use Dig!"

The small mole emerged from the ball and quickly ducked into its hole, preparing its attack.

"Geodude, use Earthquake," Brock commanded. Geodude began swinging its arms wildly, pounding the ground with all of its might. The whole arena shook violently as chunks of rock were forced from the ground.

"Diglett, get out of there!" Jerald said, as the mole emerged near the rock pokémon. "Use Mud Shot, quick!" Diglett unleashed a barrage of muddy pellets at the already weakened geodude, easily defeating it.

"Geodude is unable to continue," the referee cried, holding his arm up and then out towards the victor. "This battle goes to the challenger, Jerald Fisher!"

"Impressive battling, young man," the ageing gym leader said as he met Jerald in the center of the arena. "To commemorate your victory, I award you the Boulder Badge. Congratulations!"

Jerald reached out and took his first badge from the small tray Brock carried with him, smiling widely.

"Thank you for the battle," Jerald said happily, "and for the advice."

Brock nodded happily. "Good luck on your journey, I can see you will be a fine trainer."

Jerald collected his backpack, and his still sleeping pokémon, and quickly left with Dan, who had earned his badge before Jerald. The morning sun shone brightly on the city as the two walked through the quiet streets. The morning crowd had dissipated, leaving only a few early birds to roam the city.

"Great battle, bud," Dan said, as they headed east towards Mt. Moon. "That totodile has a lot of stamina."

"Yeah, you were great too," Jerald said, cradling Ralts. "Your Machop is really fast!"

"Yeah, we are pretty great," Dan bragged.

"Mr. Fisher!" Jerald heard as Officer Jenny pulled up beside the two boys on her motorcycle. "Do you have a moment to talk?"

"Uh, sure. What's wrong officer?" Jerald responded.

"We sent a squad into the forest to look into your claim about Team Rocket. All we found was a cap with their insignia on the front," Jenny explained, still on her bike. "It was found in the area you reported attacking two of them."

"So they got away," Jerald concluded.

"Unfortunately, yes, but there was something strange about the forest," Jenny continued. "There was a large area in the southwest that was completely covered in ice. We assume that's where you were surrounded by the thieves."

"Ice!?" the two boys cried at once, causing Ralts to stir. Jerald immediately shushed Dan and checked whether the pokémon was still asleep.

"Yes, we were baffled as well," Jenny said. "Obviously it isn't natural, since it's the end of spring, but there was nothing in the forest to show us its source. Perhaps Team Rocket had a pokémon who knows Blizzard?"

"It's possible," Jerald said thoughtfully. "There was a Kingdra there. But I didn't see it use any ice type attacks."

Officer Jenny paused for a moment, "I suppose, but we'll look into it and let you know what we find."

The boys agreed and waved as the officer disappeared around the corner. The two checked the time and hurried to the Pokémon Center, they were already late to meet Lisa on the east side of town.

* * *

"I know Daddy" Lisa said, annoyed. She hardly kept eye contact as she scanned the mountainous terrain ahead of her. She was anxious to get out of the city.

"And don't forget to drink lots of water, stay hydrated," Chase said, continuing his mental check list. "And make sure you bathe every night."

"Okay!" Lisa shouted, feeling that her father had said enough at that point. "I'll be fine, don't worry."

"Alright, alright," Chase said with a chuckle. "Just be careful, alright sweetie?"

Lisa nodded and gave her father one last hug before her two 'escorts' arrived. That's how she viewed the two boys, employed by her father to protect her. She pushed off of him immediately as she saw the two approaching, with Ralts still in Jerald's arms.

"Alright, have fun," Chase said as he hurried off to avoid the psychic pokémon. Lisa was speechless.

"Hey Lisa, was that your dad?" Dan asked as he approached, watching the man.

"…Yeah," she finally said, astonished that he didn't stay and preach to the boys about her safety.

Ralts sat up in Jerald's arms, looking around frantically for the familiar presence it felt. It clung tightly to Jerald, afraid of being attacked by Team Rocket again.

"So, are you ready…"

"Hang on," She interrupted Dan, watching her father. Once he was gone, she smiled. "Great, seeya later losers."

"Wait, what?" Dan managed to ask, heartbroken.

"I don't know why he doesn't trust me, but I don't need you all around to protect me," Lisa said, walking towards Mt. Moon. "Cute pokémon, by the way. Bye!"

Jerald smiled and thanked her while Dan just stood there with his mouth open.

"Well this sucks," Dan said. "Come on, let's go after her!"

"Hang on," Jerald said, grabbing his friend before he could sprint forward. "I have to call mom."

Dan sighed as Jerald placed his drowsy ralts on the ground and pulled out his cell phone. Dan loitered anxiously, hoping to catch up to the girl. After about ten minutes, they were finally able to pursue Lisa.

It took a few hours to walk to Mt. Moon, running into Lisa about five times in the process. Each time she encountered them, she was more creative with her escape. She had no trouble getting away, however, since she was much more light on her feet than the boys. Finally, Jerald convinced Dan that they would meet Lisa again at the summit of Mt. Moon and they slowed their pace. The summit was a common stop for hikers and trainers who were passing through so Jerald was confident they could confront her there.

By late afternoon, they reached a massive wall of rock. They stared up in awe at the size and quickly looked for a way forward. A few meters to their left, they found a small incline leading into a cave with a sign posted beside the entrance. The sign read "Follow the lighted path to reach Mt. Moon's summit. Be wary of the creatures inside."

"A bit ominous," Dan said.

"A little bit," Jerald replied sarcastically. "Come on, we need to hurry before the sun goes down."

Dan agreed and followed Jerald inside, but Ralts refused to go in. It froze in fear when it felt a wave of anger and confusion pouring out of the cave.

"Oh come on, Ralts," Jerald said lightheartedly, "it's just a cave. There's not too much to be scared about."

"Except maybe a graveler ripping out your throat," Dan teased, scaring Ralts even more.

"Shut up!" Jerald said, and then turned back to Ralts with a smile. "There's nothing in here we can't handle." But Ralts still shook its head and clung to the small, wooden sign.

"Do you want to travel in your ball?" Jerald asked, reaching into his pocket. Ralts shook its head even more and ran to hang on to Jerald's leg. He gently pulled the pokémon off of his leg and held it in his arms as he walked forward with Dan. "Don't worry, we'll be okay."

The dark cave opened up into a large cavern dotted with shattered rocks and many other battle scars, probably caused by trainers over time. A few corridors were visible in the fading light, cutting through the thick rocks walls of the cave. On the ground there were two lines of green lights, giving off just enough light to illuminate the space between them throughout the deepest parts of the cave.

"This is pretty cool," Dan commented as they followed the green trail. "I wonder who came up with this."

"Probably some stiff trying to make a good impression," Jerald said flatly.

After about an hour of walking, a loud crunch sound echoed through the cave. Jerald stopped, expecting another sound. Only a moment later rustling noise was heard, followed by another crunch.

"Dan, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Dan responded, speaking as if his mouth was full.

"That noi…that was you, wasn't it?" Jerald said.

"Maybe," Dan said as he began to dig into his bag of potato chips once again.

"You idiot! Put that away you're going to attract attention," Jerald scolded.

"So what? We'll have to fight at some point anyway, right?"

"Yeah, but I'd rather not attract a hungry mob of zubat!"

"You're overreacting," Dan said through a mouthful of chips, "and I'm hungry."

"How can you be hungry!?" Jerald asked. "You've already finished two apples since lunch time."

"Hey, Jerald, look over there." Dan said, pointing ahead as he avoided the question.

A few feet in front of them, the trail of light ended abruptly. Large boulders were visible in the dim, green light. As the two approached, Dan pulled out a flashlight to inspect the blockage. Jerald would have pursued their argument further, but their current situation required his full attention.

"You think it was a cave in?" Jerald asked, trying to make out as much as possible in the low light.

"I don't know about that," Dan responded, following a line of boulders. "There's no rubble, just boulders."

The two looked for a way around the blockage and were astonished at what they found on the other side. Scattered on the floor of the wide tunnel were dozens of fainted pokémon, including geodude, graveler, zubat, clefairy, and sandshrew. When the boys turned back to look at the road block, their flashlights revealed the pained face of an unconscious onix.

"What happened here?" Jerald asked in disbelief.

Ralts felt every painful emotion of the pokémon in the cave, and the feelings were becoming even more intense. It cried out to try and warn the boys, but they could not understand. Only a moment later, they heard the sounds of stomping and scurrying all around them. They turned to see a sandslash approach one of the unconscious sandshrew and stroke it gently to check that it was alive. Seeing that it was, the pokémon flared its spikes and called out wildly. Many other sandslash stepped out of the shadows and followed suit.

"Maybe we should run," Dan said.

"Good idea."

The two boys turned and darted straight into another tunnel. The two continued running through the maze of tunnels, running into even more angry pokémon at every turn. No matter where they ran, their pursuers found them easily. Finally, they were able to pull ahead of the mob and stopped to catch their breaths.

"That was close," Dan panted.

"Yeah, you think they're still following us?" Jerald asked, checking the way they had just come.

"I don't know, but I lost my snack," Dan complained.

"You dropped the chips?" Jerald asked, to which Dan responded with a nod. "Good."

As he said that, he punched his friend in the face. He then gently placed his shaken ralts on the ground, prepared for a counter attack.

"What was that for!?" Dan cried.

"For almost killing us!" Jerald shouted. "I bet those pokémon just followed the scent of barbeque to find us!"

"Will you idiots shut up!" a voice said from one of the adjacent tunnels. "You're going to scare away all the pokémon."

Following the voice was a bright light from a tunnel on their left. They walked over to the entrance to meet a young man who looked only a few years older than Jerald. He wore a red jacket and black cargo pants. He had messy brown hair and his cold, blue eyes were focused on Jerald. In one hand was a bright flashlight; in the other was a Great Ball.

"Hey, I know you," Jerald said. "You're the guy I ran into at the Pewter Pokémon Center."

"Great, you remember me," he said in a monotone voice, "I'm touched. Now why are you in my way?"

"We're just trying to get to the summit," Dan explained, trying to ignore the boy's rudeness. "Where'd you come from?"

"The summit," the young man responded. "Go up this tunnel and hang a left. Once you see the green path, go uphill. Now move! You're interrupting my training."

"Wait, training?" Jerald said, as the young man shoved past him. "Were you the one who knocked out all those pokémon back there?"

"Yeah, so?" he said, turning back to Jerald. He seemed rather annoyed.

"So you could at least battle away from the path!" Jerald said angrily. "We were chased half way up the mountain because of you!"

"Not my problem, but at least you found the shortcut," the young man responded as he departed. "You should be grateful."

Jerald wanted to go after him and argue, but he wanted to get out of the cave even more. Ralts, who was still seated in Jerald's right arm, felt his frustration and patted him on the shoulder to console him.

"I'm fine," Jerald said after meeting Ralts' worried gaze. "Let's get out of here, guys."

He and Dan followed the tunnel that the boy used and turned left at the first opportunity. As they walked, they saw a few more fainted pokémon. One in particular was a clefable surrounded by three worried cleffa. They kept shaking the unconscious pokémon in an attempt to wake it, but it didn't stir. Jerald assumed that the clefable had to be their mother, so he reached into his pack and used a revival potion.

_Jeez, what an ass._ Jerald thought as he funneled the foul smelling liquid into the pokémon's mouth. As it began to stir, he left quickly so he didn't disturb them any longer. After only a few more minutes of walking, they found the path and turned left to climb the steep incline. The two boys practically ran as they saw the sunset through an opening in the cave wall. Finally out of the darkness, both boys took a deep breath of fresh air.

"Finally, we're out of there!" Jerald said as he happily took in the scenery. Not far from the cave, they spotted a small resort for travelers and a Pokémon Center.

"Alright," Dan said happily. "You go check us in; I'm going to find Lisa!"

"Maybe you should go get us a room," Jerald said with a smile. "I should probably talk to her _before_ you start getting on her nerves."

The two argued the entire time it took to walk to the medium sized building, finally deciding to let Jerald do the talking.

* * *

**As I said before, I was a little rushed so I probably didn't proofread as carefully as I should've. Please point out any errors you find so I can fix them.**

**I should probably be able to get out 4 or 5 more chapters before school starts back so I'll try to post every Monday or Tuesday.**

**Don't forget to leave a review!**


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